Saturday, January 9, 2010

My People: Notes On Lancaster County Amish and Mennonites.

For clarity concerning the use of "Pennsylvania Dutch": "Deutsch" is German for, uh, German.

On why/how Lancaster County? Many Lancaster County Amish and Mennonites (I grew up in Lancaster, my grandparents were Mennonite) are from the Swiss-German-speaking area of Switzerland (Canton Bern) but spent a subsequent few generation in Germany after fleeing prosecution in their homeland. Prosecution had led them to live outside towns and cities as farmers, self-reliant. William Penn caught up with them in Germany and, needing settlers for his new state, promised religious freedom in fledgling Pennsylvania. Germantown was the first primary settlement in the state. My flock chose to go west to Lancaster, then the outskirts of the new settlement.

Separation of Church and State: Despite self-schooling and what in modern times look like "backwards" ways, ask any Amish or Mennonite why the separation of church and state is so important. They'll tell you to read Martyrs' Mirror, the book Armstrong mentions below, a harrowing tome of the tortures suffered by Anabaptists under state laws from the time of Christ until 1660.

That doubt about the Establishment clause exists among other Fundamentalist or some Evangelical groups in the US today is, according to the Baptists who paid with the blood of their members for centuries, protection from and by the state is tantamount to religious freedom. Every Anabaptist is taught their history, one that remembers the horrors of Theocracy. Now once removed from the church, I still strongly resent efforts to debunk the importance of separation of church and state.

Continuing this week’s Anabaptist theme, here are the surprising and interesting factoids that made it into the front page of Christian History & Biography’s issue 94: Pilgrims & Exiles, about America’s Anabaptist groups:

Pilgrims and Exiles: Did You Know?Interesting and unusual facts about America’s AnabaptistsFriday, October 1, 2004

You may be more Mennonite than you think

Many American Christians simply assume that the state has no business dictating church beliefs or practices, that a church should be a gathered body of believers rather than a net that scoops up everyone within the area of a parish, and that baptism is a step of obedience upon profession of faith. What most do not know is that Mennonites were the first (surviving) group of Christians to insist on these things, and that they died by the thousands for doing so.

“Are you saved?” … “Ask my neighbors”

The early Brethren (Dunkers)—a cousin movement to the Mennonites and Amish—practiced a lively evangelistic outreach. But the typical Anabaptist emphasis on showing, not just telling, one’s faith remained strong. When Brethren evangelist Rufus P. Bucher was asked by a stranger in a railway station, “Brother, are you saved?” he replied that since he might be prejudiced on the question, his interrogator should go ask his wife, children, and neighbors. “I’ll be ready to let their answers stand as my own.”

Trail of blood

The Martyrs Mirror (1660), an Anabaptist martyrology, has as its full title “The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only Upon Confession of Faith, and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus, Their Saviour, From the Time of Christ to the Year A.D. 1660.”

A-Fording them a higher profile

By the 1980s, annual visitors to Lancaster County’s “Amish country” numbered above 4 million. The 1985 Harrison Ford film “Witness” increased the flood even further (though not doubling it as predicted).

Plain dress not so simple

To the outsider, the Anabaptists’ plain dress looks oppressively uniform. But really study plain dress, and you’ll find a dizzying array of differences. In his book Why Do They Dress That Way? Brethren scholar Stephen Scott charts out these differences. Amish women may wear a straight or a crossed cape, a Midwest, Lancaster, or “Nebraska” back, and a rectangular or triangular shawl. Amish men may sport hats with a plain, creased, depressed, or flat crown; and wear X-type, H-type, Y-type, or single strap suspenders. Mennonite women choose between Reformed, Wenger, or Victoria bonnets—all with chin straps—or wear a bonnet without a strap, called a “beanie” bonnet. And Mennonite and Brethren men wear either a frock or sack coat.

Just another farming group

Public fascination with the Lancaster County Amish began early in the 20th century with romanticized images of Amish life on WPA posters and in theatrical treatments like the 1955 musical Plain and Fancy. But throughout most of the 19th century, the Amish numbered fewer than 5,000, and the nation had not progressed in technology and culture to the point where they stood out. The press and public generally tended to ignore them.

Give us this day our daily bread

All Brethren celebrate the “love feast” twice each year. But the Old Order River Brethren (so named because upon joining they were baptized in the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania) reserve a special role for their women in preparing for the feast. Breadmaking—mixing, kneading, and baking unleavened bread used for communion—is part of the ceremony itself. At long trestle tables in the main meeting room, the sisters (baptized women) work the dough, while the brothers stand by and preach a spiritual interpretation of the act. Preparing the bread together in this way reinforces the unity of Christ’s body; leaving leaven out of the bread is akin to getting rid of any kind of pride or spiritual impurity.

Going—and staying—”Dutch”

Pennsylvania German, or Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsilfaani-Deitsch), is a High German language spoken by 150,000 to 250,000 people in North America. (“Dutch” is an archaic English term meaning “German.”) Only Amish and Old Order Mennonites are passing the language along to their children in the current generation, although they were originally minority groups within the Pennsylvania German-speaking population. In these cultures, the language is a sign of Demut or humility, and the language serves as a barrier against the outside world. With the high birth rate in Amish communities, the possibility is great that the language will survive at least in the short term.

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About Me

The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America will be published by Beacon Press in February 2016.
I'm a writer (and hospice volunteer) living in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and writing primarily about the nexus of death and religion for publications like Guernica magazine (where I'm a contributing nonfiction editor), Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Bookforum, The Baffler, The Guardian, and The New York Times.

I am a Visiting Scholar at The Center for Religion and Media, NYU, and a contributing editor at The Revealer, the Center's publication (where I was editor until June 2013). I write the monthly column, "The Patient Body."

You can find my articles at annneumann.com.
I can be reached at otherspoon@yahoo.com, @otherspoon